British Association for Lung Research
@balrcommunity.bsky.social
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The British Association for Lung Research provides a focus for exchange of ideas between respiratory researchers. Registered Charity: SC010151
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balrcommunity.bsky.social
Do you want to become part of a dynamic committee and contribute to the strategic planning of the BALR?
Apply for the open positions on our committee!
Chair
Treasurer
Communications Secretary
Publications Secretary
RSB Representative
Post-Doc Rep
More info at balr.co.uk/about
balrcommunity.bsky.social
🎉 The #BALR2025 early career competition went to Juma El Awaisi from University of Birmingham
🎉 The postgraduate competition went to Bethany Sawyer from @brisunipress.bsky.social
🎉 mid-career competition went to Polina Yarova from @newcastleuni.bsky.social
Congratulations! 2/2
balrcommunity.bsky.social
#BALR2025 is over, and here are the winners of the competitions:
Poster competition
🎉 Mads Rossanese from @ucl.ac.uk
🎉 Katherine Ronchetti from The Children’s hospital for Wales
🎉 Sasha-Gaye Richards from @uniofnottingham.bsky.social
Congratulations all! 1/2
balrcommunity.bsky.social
#BALR2025 organiser Renata Jurkowska doing closing remarks and thank yous to everyone who helped, organised and sponsored.
balrcommunity.bsky.social
#BALR2025 is coming to a close. We are going out with a bang with lung regeneration superstar Prof Tata from Duke University.
balrcommunity.bsky.social
And to close off the last session at #BALR2025 Ellen Jenkins from Uni of Birmingham is presenting on The impact of HIF-1 pathway activation on alveolar macrophage immunometabolism: implications for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis
balrcommunity.bsky.social
And now presenting ‘Leupaxin Orchestrates Proliferation and
Myofibroblast Transition in
Human Lung Fibroblasts’ is Petar Popov from @cardiffuni, at #BALR2025
balrcommunity.bsky.social
And after PCLSs, we’re now onto epithelial-mesenchymal-endothelial organoids with Dr Anna Krasnodembskaya from
Queen’s University Belfast, now at #BALR2025.
balrcommunity.bsky.social
Now for modelling lung development, repair and disease at #BALR2025, Dr Charlotte Dean from @imperialnhli.bsky.social who is going to present on her PCLS models to study lung injury and repair.
balrcommunity.bsky.social
Last but not least for the mid-career competition at #BALR2025 Dr Bettina Schock from Queen’s University Belfast, presenting on ‘Induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-derived fibroblasts reveal differences between Systemic Sclerosis (SSc) and SSc-IL.
balrcommunity.bsky.social
The next contestant at #BALR2025 is Dr Polina Yarova from @newcastleuni.bsky.social presenting on ‘Calcium-sensing receptor
integrates polyamine metabolism with
inflammatory and fibrotic responses in bleomycin-induced lung injury.
balrcommunity.bsky.social
The mid-career competition has kicked off on day 3 of #BALR2025 with @drmanuplate.bsky.social talking on the involvement of mTORC1 in defining the transcriptional identity of the CTHRC1+ fibroblasts.
balrcommunity.bsky.social
Day 2 Keynote talk at #BALR2025 is by Alex Zhavoronkov , from In Silico Medicine speaking online directly from HK (where it’s 1am! 😴) on AI-assisted drug discovery.
balrcommunity.bsky.social
Wrapping up this ‘Interactions at play’ section is @julieworrell.bsky.social from @uofglasgow.bsky.social and @ucddublin.bsky.social on how the interaction between immunomodulatory fibroblasts and T-cells in regulate lung damage
responses in viral and fibrotic lung injury.
balrcommunity.bsky.social
Telling us about ‘Metabolic reprogramming in fibrotic lung diseases’
is Dr Brinnie Selvarajah from @ucl.ac.uk Reapiratory at #BALR2025.
balrcommunity.bsky.social
‘Intranasal vaccines against respiratory viruses’ by Dr Carly Bliss from @cardiffunilib.bsky.social at #BALR2025.
balrcommunity.bsky.social
Closing this session at #BALR2025 is Poojitha Rajasekear from @uniofnottingham.bsky.social on investigating cell-free DNA methylation in asthma.
balrcommunity.bsky.social
Closing this session at #BALR2025 is Dr Timothy Hinks from @ox.ac.uk talking about Single cell and spatial studies in Asthma.
balrcommunity.bsky.social
Next up at #BALR2025 Prof Luis Mur on metabolomics.
balrcommunity.bsky.social
Another fantastic session is underway at #BALR2025 on ‘New kids on the block, leveraging new omics technologies for the discovery of new biomarkers and drug targets.’

First up is @alisonejohn.bsky.social from @imperialnhli.bsky.social on spatial transcriptomics.
balrcommunity.bsky.social
Last but not least for the #BALR2025 postgraduate competition is Bethany Sawyer from @bristoluni.bsky.social
balrcommunity.bsky.social
The second contestant in the #BALR2025 postgraduate competition is Darius Pease from @cardiffunilib.bsky.social
balrcommunity.bsky.social
First up in the postgraduate competition at #BALR2025 is Kun Zheng from @unisouthampton.bsky.social
balrcommunity.bsky.social
BALR President Prof Liz Sapey is now introducing the #BALR2025 postgraduate competition. In her message she highlighted the quality of all abstracts submitted.

Good luck to the three finalists!
balrcommunity.bsky.social
Positions are open on the BALR committee, if U R at #BALR2025 & interested chat to us!
Open positions + who 2 talk 2:
- Chair @chrisscotton.bsky.social
- Treasurer @amandatatler.bsky.social
- Comms @drmanuplate.bsky.social
- Publications @meretelong.bsky.social
- Post doc rep Brinnie Selvarajah
balrcommunity.bsky.social
The second #BALR2025 poster session is in full swing!